“Cha be sin an gnathas
Bha ’n tigh m’ athur no momhathar
Cha robh aona mhart air thré sinnean
Na naoinear ’a mhuinntir
Ach naoi slabhrinnean òir
An crocha ’n tigh Righ Sionnach.”
[28] Others say his servant man saw her first, a tradition which finds a ready explanation for the whole account, in an attempt to discourage Hugh by means of a prevailing superstition.
[29] After his victory Dowart made prisoner of his brother, Lochbuy, and sent him to Kerneburg, a stronghold of which the Dowarts became heritable keepers, on one of the Treshinish Islands, near Staffa, west of Mull. He sent “Black Sarah Macphie” (Mòr dhu nic a Phì), from Suidhe, in the Ross of Mull, the most ungainly woman he could get, so ugly that she was nicknamed “The Pack-saddle” (an t-srathair), to take care of him. Black Sarah, however, became the mother of Murcha Gearr, who ultimately made himself master of his paternal acres.
[30] Campbell of Islay’s West Highland Tales, ii. 83.
[31] An old man in Aharacle, in the north of Argyleshire, was shaved, his face was washed, his hair combed, and his personal appearance attended to in anticipation of his speedy dissolution. When an attempt was made to cut his nails, he told his friends to let them alone: “They are, he exclaimed, but slight weapons for myself, seeing I don’t know where I am going to.” (’S beag an t-armachd dhomh fhìn iad, ’s gun fhios ’am cean’ tha mi dol.)